Afghan Ministry of Counter Narcotics

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The Afghan Ministry of Counter Narcotics (MCN) is a ministry within the Government of Afghanistan. Counter Narcotics was designated a Ministry in December 2004, having previously been the Counter Narcotics Directorate in the Afghan Ministry of the Interior.

The Ministry of Counter Narcotics leads the coordination, policy making, monitoring and evaluation of all Counter Narcotics activities and efforts. All Counter Narcotics activities are carried out in view of Afghan Constitution, Afghan Drug Law and Afghanistan's National Drug Control Strategy (NDCS).

The Minister for Counter Narcotics is Engineer Habibullah Qaderi who was appointed by President Hamid Karzi in January 2004.

[edit] Functions

Opium production in Afghanistan exceeds by far the opium produced in the rest of the world. The Ministry of Counter Narcotics has the lead on co-ordinating and evaluating the Afghan Drug Law, and Afghanistan's National Drugs Control Strategy.

The Ministry has 8 pillars of activity:

Institution Building
Law Enforcement
International and Regional Cooperation
Eradication
Public Awareness
Alternative Livelihoods
Criminal Justice
Demand Reduction

There are four published priorities for activity: Priority One: Disrupting the drugs trade by targeting traffickers and their backers and eliminating the basis for the trade. Priority Two: Strengthening and diversifying legal rural livelihoods. Priority Three: Reducing the demand for illicit drugs and treatment of problem drug users. Priority Four: Strengthening state institutions both at the centre and in the provinces The Government intends to spend the preponderance of its resources and energy on these four priority areas.